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George Zimmerman's 'Cozy' Relationship With Sanford Police Questioned

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Trymaine Lee - May. 24 (Investigative Report) - Neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman had a relationship with members of the police department in Sanford, Fla., long before he shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin to death in February, newly released information suggests. During a community forum on J

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Death on the Border: Shocking Video Shows Mexican Immigrant Beaten and Tased to Death by US Border Patrol Agents

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 24 (Special Report) - “Eyewitnesses tell the same story of a man hogtied and handcuffed, not resisting, being beaten - by batons, kicks, and a taser - for almost 30 minutes until he died,” says reporter John Carlos Frey.

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Corporate Media Hypocrisy: Ted Nugent's Death Wish for Obama v. Hilary Rosen's Work Jab at Ann Romney

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adele M. Stan - Apr. 19 (News Analysis) - Ever since the election of the nation's first African-American president, the media seem to have become acclimated to a right-wing rhetorical landscape so fraught with racism and violence that words once unthinkable as public utterances by supporters of a Republican candidate barely register as such. Yet, cowed as they are by the right-wing message machine, media figures often feel that they dare not ignore even the most ridiculous of right-wing talking points.

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40 Years in Solitary Confinement: Two Members of Angola 3 Remain in Isolation in Louisiana Prison

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 17 (Special Report) - It’s been 40 years to the day — since April 17, 1972, or 14,600 days ago — that Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox have been held in solitary confinement in Louisiana. The state says they were guilty of murdering a guard at Angola Prison, but Wallace, Woodfox and their network of supporters say they were framed for their political activism as members of the Black Panthers.

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Despite Praise & Permission, Detroit Teacher Fired for Helping Students’ Trayvon Martin Fundraiser

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 13 (Special Report) - An eighth grade charter school teacher in Michigan has been fired after helping her students organize a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin’s parents. Brooke Harris and her students at Pontiac Academy for Excellence drew up a plan to raise money by donating one dollar each to wear a hoodie to school, as Martin had worn when he was shot dead. She obtained permission for the fundraiser but her Superintendent opposed the plan. Harris was initially suspended and then later fired without explanation. "They did not want to walk out of class; they didn't want to wear the hoods over their head. They just wanted to pay a dollar to wear their regular clothes instead of uniform and donate that money to someone else who they saw needed it," Harris says. "I just wanted to know what I specifically did wrong, so I could learn from my alleged mistake and be sure never to do that again." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Arizona Teacher Sean Arce Fired in Latest Crackdown on Acclaimed Mexican-American Studies Program

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 13 (News Report) - Sean Arce, the head of the Tucson school district’s banned Mexican-American Studies program, was dismissed Tuesday night amid vocal protests from dozens of supporters. Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies program has been under attack following the passage of a bill which prohibits schools from offering ethnic studies courses. Arce maintains he was fired because he spoke out against what he saw as a discriminatory law targeting Mexican-Americans and Latinos. "I, along with many others, stood up and [saw] this law as unconstitutional," Acre says. "And because we stood up, the district has retaliated." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Trayvon Murder Eyewitness Says Police Refused to See Crime Scene

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd - Apr. 08 (News Report) - .when the cops brought her in for questioning, she offered to show them the scene of the crime and explain exactly what happened—she saw the "larger man" attacking "the boy"—the police declined her offer. Not only that, but they suggested that she was wrong: that Zimmerman was the one calling for help, not Martin.

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National Review Tries To Distance Itself From Derbyshire For Racist Column, But Silent On Calls For Firing Him

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Apr. 07 (News Analysis) - After the National Review’s John Derbyshire penned an unbelievably offensive and racist screed in Taki’s Magazine advising white Americans to stay away from black Americans, a firestorm has predictably erupted over whether his views will be sanctioned by the larger conservative movement. Derbyshire told ThinkProgress that his column urging the majority of Americans to “avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally” was not satire, but in fact a “social commentary.”

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It's Not Just Trayvon: 9 Other Cases That Prove People of Color Can't Safely Walk the Streets of America

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Nicholas Pell - Apr. 02 (Special Report) - It's worth noting that despite nearly 200 attempts, a federal anti-lynching law was never passed in the United States. Further, Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, and others like it, have led to what is essentially legalized murder in several areas of the country.

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Killed At Home: White Plains, NY Police Called Out On Medical Alert Shoot Dead Black Veteran, 68

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 29 (News Report) - As the Trayvon Martin case draws national attention, we look at another fatal shooting of an African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old African-American Marine veteran, was fatally shot in November by White Plains, NY, police who responded to a false alarm from his medical alert pendant. The officers broke down Chamberlain's door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Audio of the entire incident was recorded by the medical alert device in Chamberlain's apartment. We're joined by family attorneys and Chamberlain's son, Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., who struggles through tears to recount his father's final moments, including the way police officers mocked his father's past as a marine. "For them to look at my father that way, (with) no regard for his life, every morning I think about it," he says. [includes rush transcript]

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Racism in America: President Obama's Double-Bind on Trayvon Martin

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Mar. 24 (News Analysis) - Gingrich's comments are particularly egregious and opportunistic. People are murdered all the time. What makes the Trayvon Martin case noteworthy is that the police know who the murderer is and have so far simply refused to arrest him. It is highly unlikely that a white boy, even one wearing a hoodie, would have been followed, harassed and shot to death, but it is completely unthinkable that a white boy's death would not have resulted in an arrest.

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The Anti-Government 'Patriot' Movement Is Exploding in Size and Reach

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Mar. 24 (Special Report) - The number of hate groups counted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) last year reached a total of 1,018, up slightly from the year before but continuing a trend of significant growth that is now more than a decade old. The truly stunning growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded groups that see the federal government as their primary enemy.

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Years Before Trayvon Martin's Murder, Opponents of FL "Stand Your Ground" Law Predicted "Racially Motivated Killings" | AlterNet

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Judd Legum - Mar. 22 (Special Report) - Seven years ago, opponents of the “Stand Your Ground” legislation predicted it could lead to racially motivated killings. From Reuters, April 2005: “For a House that talks about the culture of life it’s ironic that we would be devaluing life in this bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.” [...] Critics say the measure could lead to racially motivated killings and promote deadly escalations of arguments.

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Discussing the Motives of the Afghan Shooter

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Gelnn Greenwald - Mar. 19 (News Analysis) - There is, quite obviously, a desperate need to believe that when an American engages in acts of violence of this type (meaning: as a deviation from formal American policy), there must be some underlying mental or emotional cause that makes it sensible, something other than an act of pure hatred or Evil.' Glenn Greenwald, Salon

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Why the Racist History of the Charter School Movement Is Never Discussed

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Christopher Bonastia - Mar. 15 (Special Report) - As a historical sociologist who studies race and politics, however, I am disturbed both by the significant challenges that plague the contemporary charter school movement, and by the ugly history of segregationist tactics that link past educational practices to the troubling present.

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NAACP Head Benjamin Jealous in Geneva Seeking United Nations Help To Protect Voting Rights in U.S.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 13 (News Report) - Since last year, 15 states have passed new voting laws that critics say suppress the votes of the poor, students and people of color. This is the topic of a major speech set for today by NAACP head Benjamin Jealous before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The NAACP wants a U.N. delegation of experts to monitor the impact of voter identification laws, as well new restrictions on same-day registration, early voting, Sunday voting, and making it harder to run a voting registration drive. Its outreach to the United Nations has been compared to the group’s efforts in the 1940s and 1950s when it sought international support in its fight for civil rights and against lynching.

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White conservative manhood crisis

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - Mar. 08 (News Analysis) - Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum’s attacks on women’s reproductive rights didn’t happen in a vacuum. They’re part of a larger conservative backlash against women, minorities and the poor.

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U.S. Hate and Extremist Groups Hit Record Levels New Report Says

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Brian Levin, J.D.: - Mar. 08 (News Report) - The number of domestic hate and extremist groups in the United States grew to record levels in 2011, led by a surge in anti-government radicalism, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a prominent civil rights organization based in Montgomery, AL. In 2011 there were 1,018 "hate groups" nationally, representing a slight increase from the previous record, one year earlier in 2010, when there were 1,002 hate groups tallied.

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Spying On Campus: New York Police Caught Monitoring Muslim Student Groups Throughout Northeast

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 21 (News Report) - the New York City Police Department monitored Muslim college students at schools throughout the Northeast, including Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. In one case, the NYPD sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

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The Wealthy One Percent That’s Behind Minnesota’s Racist Voter ID Push

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Brentin Mock - Feb. 13 (News Report) - The perennial swing state of Minnesota is the latest to be enthralled in debate over Republican-led efforts to create new voting restrictions that civil rights groups say will undermine voter access for low-income people of color, the disabled, youth and immigrants, among others. And a new watchdog report argues this week that the wealthy one percent of Minnesota are behind those efforts.

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How Conservative Elites Stoke Racist Anxieties to Gain Power and Split Blacks and Whites

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Chauncey DeVega - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - Newt Gingrich calling Obama a “food stamp president,” Rick Santorum implying that African Americans are parasites who leach off of white people, and Ron Paul’s old newsletters, which describe black men as monstrous beasts (“giant negroes” who stand ready to attack whites at any moment), are examples of this phenomenon on the national stage.

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Raj Patel: In Attacks on Obama, Food Stamps, Newt Gingrich is “Racially Coding Poverty”

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 23 (News Analysis) - what is really needed is a conversation about poverty and why the need for food stamps is so high. "It’s true that disproportionately people of color are affected by food insecurity. But what Gingrich is doing, of course, is racially coding poverty by calling President Obama 'the food stamp president,'" Patel said. "He’s invoking these ideas of racialized poverty. Of course, if you look at the people who are on the food stamp program, you see that the majority of them are white and poor." Patel is author of the popular book, "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System."

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Ahead of South Carolina Primary, GOP Candidates Employ Race-Baiting Tradition to Win Southern Vote

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 20 (News Analysis) - Leading up to the South Carolina primary, several Republican presidential candidates have been criticized for comments made over issues of race. This week Newt Gingrich defended his description of President Obama as "the food stamp president," while offering praise for President Andrew Jackson, the architect of the Indian Removal Act. We speak to South Carolina civil rights activist Kevin Alexander Gray and longtime political reporter Wayne Slater about how Republicans have adopted the long-held "Southern strategy" of race baiting in order to win over bigoted white voters. "Democrats come here to get their black ticket punched. Republicans come here to punch black people," Gray says. [includes rush transcript]

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Voter Photo ID Laws Hit Older Americans Hard

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AARP Bulletin - By Marsha Mercer - Jan. 05 (News Analysis) - Having a driver's license or photo identification card is commonplace for most Americans, but about 11 percent of adult citizens — more than 21 million people — lack a valid, government-issued photo ID, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

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Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Mounting Storm of Anti-Latino Bias, Prisoner Abuse, Sex-Crimes Negligence

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez - Dec. 22 (News Report) - The controversy around Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is growing by the day. In a scathing report, the Justice Department has accused Arpaio of "wide-ranging discrimination against Latinos," leading federal authorities to suspend Arpaio’s access to programs under which undocumented immigrants are handed over from his jail for deportation. "The federal government was using Arpaio as sort of a showcase, a model for its 287(g) program, in allowing local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws... But it failed miserably," says Stephen Lemons, a reporter for the Phoenix New Times. Arpaio has faced growing calls to resign amidst mounting evidence that his police department failed to properly investigate more than 400 sex crime and homicide cases.

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